The Honourable Sir Frederick W.A.G. Haultain was the first
and only Premier of the North-West Territories. He is generally recognized
as the leading figure in the development of responsible government in the
Territories.

Frederick William Alpin George Haultain was born on
November 25, 1857, in the Borough of Woolwich, which is now part of Greater
London, England. He was the son of Lieutenant-Colonel F.W. Haultain, Royal
Artillery, and Lucinde Helen Gordon. Frederick W.A.G. Haultain was a
member of the Church of England (Anglican).

When he was three, his family emigrated to Canada and
settled at Peterborough, Ontario. Frederick W.A.G. Haultain received his
primary and secondary education at Peterborough and Montreal, Quebec. I n
1879, he received a Bachelor of Arts degree (First Class Honours in the
Classics) from the University of Toronto and then went on to study law at
Osgoode Hall in Toronto. After articling with the Toronto firm of Bethune,
Moss, and Falconbridge, he was called to the Ontario Bar in 1882 and the
North-West Territories Bar in 1884.

In 1884, Frederick W.A.G. Haultain moved to Fort Macleod
where he began practising law. He also served as Crown Prosecutor at that
location for several years and did some editorial work for the Fort Macleod and
Lethbridge newspapers. He represented the electoral district of Macleod in
the North-West Territories Council during the years 1887-88 and in the
Legislative Assembly of the North-West Territories which replaced it from 1888 to
1905. He was Chairman of the Advisory Council of the North-West Territories
Council in 1888-89 and Chairman of the Executive Committee from 1891 to 1897.
Following the amendment of the North-West Territories Act , he was
appointed President of the Executive Council, or Premier, by The Honourable
Charles H. Mackintosh on October 7, 1897. As well as serving as Premier,
Frederick W.A.G. Haultain was also Attorney General and Commissioner of
Education.

Frederick W.A.G. Haultain thought that the area which now
constitutes Alberta and Saskatchewan should be one province named
"Buffalo" and that this province should be governed by non-partisan
administration. Because of his outstanding service to the North-West
Territories, many people felt that Haultain should be the first Premier of the
new Province of Alberta or Saskatchewan. However, because of his
Conservative political leanings, this idea was not acceptable to the governing
federal Liberal Party at that time. Following the formation of the
Provinces of Alberta and Saskatchewan on September 1, 1905, he represented South
Qu'Appelle in the Legislative Assembly of Saskatchewan as a member of the
Provincial Rights Party and served as the Leader of the Official Opposition in
the Saskatchewan Legislature.

In 1906, he married Marian St. Clair Castellain, the
daughter of The Honourable Charles H. Mackintosh who served as Lieutenant-Governor of the North-West Territories from 1893 to 1898. His
wife had one daughter by her first marriage with Louis Castellain.
Following the death of his first wife in 1938, Frederick W.A.G. Haultain married
Mrs. W.B. Gilmour of Montreal in September of the same year.

In 1912, Frederick W.A.G. Haultain left politics when he
was appointed Chief Justice of the Superior Court of Saskatchewan. In
1917, he was appointed Chief Justice of the Saskatchewan Court of Appeal and was
elected Chancellor of the University of Saskatchewan. In 1939, he retired
from public life following over fifty years of service.

Frederick W.A.G. Haultain was a Commissioned Officer in
the Fifty-seventh Rifle Regiment of Peterborough, Ontario; Vice-President of the
Canadian Bar Association (1896); and Vice-President of the Liberal-Conservative
Association (1898-99). He represented the North-West Territories at the
coronation of King Edward VII (1902) and he was Honorary President of the
Territorial Conservative Association (1903). As well, he was appointed Kin g's Counsel (1902), was knighted (Knight Bachelor) (1916), was awarded
Honorary Doctor of Laws degrees by the University of Toronto (1915) and the
University of Saskatchewan (1915) and the University of Saskatchewan (1939), and
was made an Honorary Chief ("White Star") by the Saskatchewan Cree
Indians. He was an avid sportsman and was a member of the Assiniboia Club
in Regina, Saskatchewan.

Frederick W.A.G. Haultain died on January 30, 1942, at
Montreal, Quebec. His ashes were buried near the Memorial Gates at the
University of Saskatchewan, in Saskatoon. A provincial government building
in Edmonton, an elementary school in Calgary, and a mountain in Jasper National
Park are named in his memory.